


Fun Times with Tho-radia

by Dantalionax



Category: Vampyr (Video Game)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Game, Sickfic, Turned Swansea, bad idea, good idea, o god elizabeth pls halp
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-09
Updated: 2018-08-09
Packaged: 2019-06-24 10:54:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15629229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dantalionax/pseuds/Dantalionax
Summary: Most people when told they had become immune to all known pathogens would rejoice at never having to endure another winter cold or bout of food poisoning. They would eat raw cookie dough with wild abandon, and never worry about that guy that never covers his mouth when he sneezes. They would certainly not see their new imperviousness to disease as something to experiment on and test, hopefully to the breaking point...Or: Somehow, Edgar Swansea somehow manages to fall ill despite the protests of his shiny new vampiric immune system, fluff ensues





	Fun Times with Tho-radia

It was a cool spring evening. Jonathan Reid sat on a park bench at the Finsbury Gate.  After returning from America he had resumed his position at Pembroke and fell into a simple, comforting pattern.  He was still no closer to perfecting a cure for Elizabeth, but neither of them were terribly worried. Time remained well on their side.  They met for tea once a week where he kept her appraised of the progress and setbacks.  She would paint while he spoke, and though she did not understand half of it, she treasured hearing it none-the-less.  Jonathan was quite spellbinding, parading about her sitting room completely subsumed in explaining his research.    
  
It was this tradition that gave Jonathan the idea to start a similar routine with his Prodigy, Edgar Swansea.  Even without two epidemics hammering it at once, Pembroke was still busy.  He proposed the idea after a particularly hectic week where he'd not seen hide nor hair of the man despite them both being at Pembroke the entire time.  So here they would meet before work was to begin that day for the dual purpose of "getting breakfast" (ensuring fewer questions from the staff about why Dr. Reid or Dr. Swansea never ate with them) and more importantly, to talk.  Some days they would debate theory and the latest discoveries with the kind of ferocity that had seen them ejected from the park for disturbing the peace on several occasions.  Usually, it was to discuss their own projects, and that was much less likely to attract the ire of London's finest.  Reid hammered away on the Blood of Hate while Swansea delved into Reid's former realm of blood transfusions.  The man worked at it like he'd been possessed, and Reid realized he truly had been.  He did not know the precise number of victims, but every time Edgar had fed it seemed to utterly devastate the man.  The kind of anguish it put him through managed to worry Jonathan, at least a little for the sanctity of his own soul.  While Jonathan took no joy in Embracing, it had become an ugly practicality.  He would certainly prefer the transfusions, but the Brotherhood volunteers were infrequent and he was determined to leave the majority of those for Edgar.  Jonathan confined himself to the doomed, even having gone so far as to slip into a prison to feed upon an inmate sentenced to be hanged.  Someday, soon perhaps, they would have the last few kinks worked out and a non-lethal method of satiating their hunger.  For now, however, no other creature on the Earth was asked to endure an existence full of ravenous starvation.  Jonathan, with a bit of petulance, decided he would not be the first one.  
  
He checked his watch and found himself racking his brain a little.  Edgar was quite late, even by Jonathan's expectations.  Reid had returned from a week at home, caring for his mother.  He had made the mistake of mentioning that he was worried about her physical health and Edgar nearly threw him out of Pembroke on the spot.  Only half jokingly, he threatened to have Milton remove him if he would not comply.  Mentally, she was still wandering around, lost and speaking with the dead family and mostly unchanged from the events that November.  At the least, Jonathan had gotten her to recognize that he was still physically present in the world instead of being just a ghost.  He chalked it up to a mother's intuition, and couldn't quite fault her for it;  he was, in fact, dead.  Despite his initial protestations, the brief stay did seem to do good for both of them.  Now though, he remembered clearly, Edgar had said to him, " Go home, I shall see you in the park next week and we shall see how she fares. " So then, where exactly was he?  
  
Jonathan's eyes closed, he observed his surroundings in grays and red in a serene calm.  It was a magnificent view of the world, even without hunger to incentivize the glamour.  Little red blips of rats and mice zipped around in the bushes, with brighter spots of robins and doves picking through the trees.  It was early enough that there were still a few enticing human-shaped tangles in the park, along with massive, nearly blinding glows of shire horses towing carriages.  
  
"Jonathan!  Ah-ha!  Jonathan my friend, I've done it! " For as ecstatic as Edgar sounded, calling from down the path, Jonathan thought he looked absolutely terrible.  Of course he was pale, all Ekons were, but this was another sort.  Even Lord Redgrave didn't have quite the same grey and yellow pallor.  The sunken, bloodshot eyes lurking back in their sockets made him look like he'd spent the prior week on a non-stop feeding frenzy, which didn't fit at all with the man's otherwise emaciated state.    
  
"What exactly have you done, Edgar?"  Jonathan reached out to shake the man's hand.  It was an anemic, clammy grasp Reid found himself in. Through it, Edgar was still smiling, albeit a bit drunkenly.  
  
"Between you, the Lady and what little the Brotherhood had, it seemed that Ekons are completely immune to all the maladies of mankind!"  He wavered off balance, just a little, looking green.  "But look!  I feel utterly dreadful!  It's incredib-uhh.. " The man's knees wobbled and collapsed in, sending him down to the ground where he gagged and retched to no production.  Jonathan didn't need a formal invitation and was quickly at his side.  Reflexively, he put his coat over the smaller man.  It seemed silly after he'd done it, but Edgar pulled it around himself gratefully anyways.    
  
"We do not vomit, it seems, a shame my body seems to keep trying anyways..."  Edgar mumbled as Jonathan first helped to his feet, then over to the bench.  
  
"What in God's name have you done to yourself?  How did you even manage this? " Jonathan's emotions were in a bit of a confused flux.  On one hand, he was incensed that Edgar had managed to injure himself on an experiment.  On the other, he was genuinely puzzled and a bit curious because to his knowledge, this should not be possible.  He placed his hand against Edgar's forehead.  "A febrile Ekon."  Jonathan said with a little astonishment.  Edgar smiled, and nodded through nausea and pain while he leaned into the welcome coolness.  "Radium salts my boy.  Infused... into blood. It worked...my god, it worked... " Edgar was so ill that Jonathan couldn't fathom how he had managed to walk from Pembroke and certainly wasn't going to allow him to attempt the return trip.  Fortunately, it was still early enough in the night that carriages were still roaming about and a simple enough task for Jonathan to hire one.  
  
From the sharp look of disdain from the driver, it was clear Jonathan and Edgar did not fit in very well with the batches of enamored newlyweds and children on vacation he'd been transporting previously.  Jonathan returned the favor with an equivalently icy glare as paid their fare, and to the man's credit his expression softened greatly when he saw the state Edgar was in.  He had formerly thought himself a rather tall man but was currently grateful Jonathan had him outclassed in that regard as he used his height and considerable strength advantage to simply heft both of them into the carriage in one smooth motion.  
  
They all remained mostly quiet on the short journey out of the park.  Edgar slouched and leaned up against Jonathan, while seeming to drift in and out of consciousness.  Jonathan could feel the man shivering against him and grew more worried.  Though his rational mind was howling away about how it was impossible, it was being consumed by a gnawing fear.  To his knowledge, this was uncharted territory Edgar had landed in, via the same literary and suddenly less-than-stellar anecdotal evidence that he had referred to.  There were certainly enough things Jonathan did not know about the vampiric condition, however, and that kept his panic at bay.  
  
Edgar proved to not be entirely out of it as they left the park and got back onto the London roads.  He picked his head back up off Jonathan's shoulder and looked around, confused and gesturing from inside the coat.  "I thought it was a turn, there, to get to Pembroke?" , He said in a scratching whisper.  
  
"It is.  We're going to Lady Ashbury's, instead. " Reid responded.  
  
Because Elizabeth Ashbury, Jonathan thought, would have some idea what to do.

**Author's Note:**

> (I'm not sure how the hell I'm the first one in the sick fic tag here, considering the source is lousy with doctors, hospitals and contagion, but there you have it)


End file.
